The Great Fire of London

This is where the Great Fire of London started.

Location: Pudding Lane

Description: The Great Fire of London started here at the bakery of Thomas Farriner (sometimes Farynor) on Pudding Lane, shortly after midnight on Sunday, 2 September 1666, and it spread rapidly, fulled by strong winds and wooden buildings, west across the City of London.

The fire raged until it was controlled and put out on Wednesday, 5 September, after gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman City Wall.

It is estimated that it destroyed the homes of 70,000 of the City's 80,000 inhabitants. The death toll from the fire is unknown and is traditionally thought to have been small, as only six verified deaths were recorded (at the time many poor would not have had their deaths recorded).

Here in Pudding Lane, the baker's family were trapped upstairs, but managed to climb from an upstairs window to the house next door. Their maidservant who was too frightened to try to climb across, became the fire's first victim.

The neighbours tried to help douse the fire; and after an hour the parish constables arrived and judged that the adjoining houses had better be demolished to prevent further spread of the fire.

This decision was contested by the locals and the mayor Sir Thomas Bloodworth agreed, unwittingly allowing the fir to spread to warehouses towards the river, and onwards. The mayor's unfortunate quote on the situation was Pish! A woman could piss it out!

Tours: Curios

Tours: Elizabethan & Stuart London

Tours: Dark London

Themes: Disaster Disaster Theme